Infected by Art Book - Volume 13 Judges

Mark Zug

Mark Zug has long been most inspired by the art of N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, Howard Pyle, J. C. Leyendecker and other painters of the American Golden Age of illustration. While attending Pennsylvania School of Art & Design, he was introduced to this world by illustrator Ken Laager, who soon accepted Zug as an apprentice and ghost painter. Zug worked on his portfolio for another five hears after art school, working as a CNC machinist, penciling historical comic strips for cartoonist Pat Reynolds, as well as assisting painting western novel covers for Ken Laager.

In 1992 he contracted with Byron Preiss Visual Publications to illustrate I Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay by Harlan Ellison, which became his break-in, full time project. Byron Preiss also tasked Zug with adapting I, Robot into graphic novel form, a fully-painted, unpublished comic for which he completed over 150 pages. After the graphic novel project ran aground on publishing difficulties, the collectible card game Dune by Last Unicorn tapped into his long-standing love of the Frank Herbert novel and became his entree into gaming art. From there he produced art for the gaming brands Shadowrun, Battletech, Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft. He obtained commissions for book covers, his artwork appearing on titles by Tanith Lee, Diana Wynne-Jones, Timothy Zahn, Peter David, those of the fantasy fiction imprints Eberron and Forgotten Realms, the magazines Popular Science, Dragon, Dungeon, Duelist, Inquest, Star Wars Gamer; the Dark Horse comic of Star Wars, to name a few. He illustrated frontispieces of the prestigious Easton Press leather-bound science fiction classics. In 2005 he became the illustrator for the long-running and best-selling Septimus Heap and TodHunter Moon series of fantasy novels by Angie Sage, providing both cover designs and interior drawings.

In more recent years, he continues to illustrate both gaming art and book projects, as well as painting private commissions which, after the fashion of his self-commissioned "Noble Gases" series, and his alternate-Middle-Earth paintings, enable him to exercise the more unfettered side of his art. In the not-too-distant future he plans to return to his beloved graphic novel medium with his own self-authored comic.

He invites all to visit www.markzug.com with eternal wishes of peace and a great view.